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Georgia Power executives gave state energy regulators chapter and verse last month on why the company needs a huge increase in electrical generating capacity to serve its 2.7 million customers.
Soon, environmental and consumer advocates will get their turn.
The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) will hold a second round of hearings Feb. 29 and March 1 on Georgia Power’s request for 6,600 megawatts of additional capacity, up from just 400 megawatts the company forecast it needed two years ago.
Georgia Power executives attribute the anticipated huge increase in demand for electricity to unprecedented economic growth in the Peach State. That growth has generated more than 38,000 jobs and $24 billion in capital investment since the PSC approved the utility’s most recent Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) in 2022, Jeff Grubb, the company’s director of resource policy and planning, wrote in testimony filed with the PSC ahead of last month’s first round of hearings.
IRPs, normally submitted to the commission every three years, lay out the mix of energy sources Georgia Power intends to rely on for power generation during the next two decades.
“Nothing in the company or state’s history could have anticipated growth of this magnitude,” Grubb wrote. “Importantly, similar growth is also being experienced by other utilities nationally as they face similar trends in increased electricity demand.”
Francisco Valle, Georgia Power’s director of forecasting analytics, said the explosion of electric vehicle manufacturing, EV battery production and emerging clean-energy technologies in Georgia are driving much of the demand for power. But the biggest factor – accounting for about 80% of the demand – is the growing number of energy-intensive…
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